Finance mergers threaten BEWARE what the mergers of financial institutions — large and smal{ — can do to your personal finances. I'm sure it’s good for Canada’s banking clout on the world scene to have a new giant created by the merger of the Royal Bank and Bank of money matters Montreal. But I'm not so sure it dees much good for compe- tition at the consumer level. My favorite sport, “bargain with vour bank manager for fun and protit — yaur profit.” is getting tougher to piay. On a very immediate and personal fev el, if you deal with cither institution, be prepared tor months and probably’ years of contusion and inefficiency. Chances are, you have been through one of the many mergers which have taken place in recent years, involving companies like Yorkshire Trust, Central Guaranty Trust, First City Trust, National Trust (first by Victoria & Grey, now by Scotiabank — which only a few years ago took over Montreal. Teuse), Pemberton Securities. Dominion Securi Richardson Greenshields and so on. Thave been through several mergers Of companies like these, and it hast’r always been a good experience. In one case, Thad been doing most of my RRSP busi- ness with astrust company. When it was taken over, che fees Uhad originally negotiated away were suddenly reim- posed. fn another case, a com- . petitive interest rate on my line of credit. was bumped’ two points, even though my finan- cial situation hadn’t changed. TL understand that different companies have — different guidelines. But too often the bigger company makes litde if any allowance for the arrange- ments made with the cus- tomers of the smaller company. Inanother recent situation, a brokerage firm had mistaken- ly put my money into an annu- al interest instead of a com- pound deposit. It promised a $5,000 credit would Se paid five years later on maturity, to make up the difference. That should have happened two months ago — but there is still no sign of the money. I understand the complexity of merging two mult-million- dollar companies can uninten- tionally wipe out a promised credit bur NIMA (not in my accound), thank you. So make sure you keep careful track of your finances when a merger or takeover involving 4 place where vou deal. — Copyright 1908 Mike Crrenby 16 -- Wednesday. March 4, 1998 - North Shore News Michael Becker News Editor michacl@usnews.com IN computer industry cir- cles they’re politely known as “legacy computer prod- ucts.” Others might call them boat anchors, or even door stoppers. They're the scorned, previous- ly enjoyed, PC discards — the 286, 386 — the dusty ehosts of a digital not-so-very past. In an industry predicated upon the imperative of bigger, better, faster, a guy like New Deal president Bill Osborne is a true iconoclast. His company sells an ineapen- sive DOS-based software applica- tion package that allows sophisti- cated point and click WYSIWYG (wharvou see is what vou get) applications including a2 word processor, spreadsheet, database, personal organizer, an) Internet browser and graphies tools — all optimized for speedy performance on older computers with as lide as a 286 processor, 640k RAM and 9 Mb of hard drive space. The software solution is partic- ularly attractive to sellers of used computers, bur the big market push by Dorval, Quebee-based New Deal is to introduce the product to school boards across the country. TYhe New Deal software is based on the GEOS operating svstem’ developed by Alameda, Calitornia- based Geoworks. The company originally devel- oped the operating system tor the Commodore computer and the IBM PC. ‘The product was shelved in 1994 by Geoworks as Microsoft went on to dominate the market. Said — Osborne, “They (Microsoft) went out with a S50 million marketing campaign. Geoworks went out with a $500,000 marketing campaign. It was buried. “ft guess the other thing that made Geoworks not succeed in the long run is that Microsoft was very smart. They had a tot of north shore news . BUSINESS New software is a new deal Package makes new computers from old NEWS photo Mike Wakefield was vou were able to run it on the older 286s and 386s and even XYTs for thar matter.” he said. Approximately 200) man years were put into the operating svs- tem. Osborne and New Deal sales representative Jose Pereira were recently in B.C. to spread the New Deal word to public school decision makers. “This is by far the solution of choice. You don't need newer, faster hardware. It’s not the hard- ware that’s the latest and great- est, it's the software. What we're looking for is smarter software and older hardware,” Osborne said. if they have the cash, some school districts will go our and buy the latest and greatest rech- nology, They mighr set the bud- get aside for Pentium machines tor Grade One and Two stu- dents, bur the suftware they're getting could run equally well under the New Deal plattorm. Said Osborne, “What they could have done is invested in training or a phenomenal Internet intra- structure, buy better printers and multi-media tools.” He estimates that statistically in Canada there is one computer in every three homes. “The defini- don of a computer that makes up that ratio is a Windows ready, Pentium ready, Internet ready computer.” Yer there are cnough computers in the country to give every home three computers. “What makes that ditterence? It means non Windows — ready. non- Pentium ready, non-Internet ready. If we get away from that Windows word and use the New Deal terminology, there are now nine New Peal Internet, email capable computers for every one Windows ready computer,” he said, New Deal’s major challenge is to get people to pick up those old computers, dust them offand try the software out. Meanwhile the GEOS operating system is showing up in’ other communications hardware, tech- nology such as the Nokia 9000 cellular phone. The item allows a user to access the net through an Internet service provider to browse the Web on a fill-graphical browser, send and receive faxes, send and receive email and word-process with the phone. se Visit the New Deal website at * (www. newdealine.com), NEW Deal President Bill Osborne, left, and sales representative Jose Pereira were in town recently to show off their software package. It allows older computers to work quickly with sophisticated applications. vision as to where they were going to get their support from. That wast so much from the cus- tomers as it was from third party developers.” Microsoft came out with a software developer’s kit that made it easy tor developers to jump on board and into the Windows world to create applica- tions quickly and without training. On operating system, but they just could- mt keep programmers thar long in training. “With ours vou had to be a pretty smart programmer in order to make one and one equal two. The net result the Geoworks side it took approxi- mately six months to train a really goud Geowarks developer. Said Osborne, “Companies like Lotus all looked at the (Geoworks) product and knew it was the better The Canadian Opportunities Strategy This new strategy, announced in the 1998 federal budget, is based on a very straightforward proposition: Canadians, regardless of their income level, who are serious about getting an education should have the opportunity to do so. Find out more about: * Tax-free RRSP withdrawals for full-time education and training. * New Canada Millennium Scholarships for 100,000 full/part-time students. * Canada Education Savings Grants paid directly into a child’s education savings plan. * Tax relief for interest payments on student loans. * Tax assistance for part-time students. Call toll free, Monday to E riday!8 am. to 10 p. moKS TS; 1998, Budget Hotline 1-888- 781 0000: T DD: $00- 465- 7735